Tag Archives: fun apps

I have always been a proponent of keeping things “stock.” Car stereos, my hair color, and until now: the apps on my phone.

In the last month or so, while perusing CNN – Tech, I’ve come across a few articles with suggestions about fun apps to try. Of course, being a total cheapskate, I ignored any apps that were paid (what if I don’t like it? or get bored with it? just money flushed!). In my general filtering process I’ve come across two that tickled my fancy: Sunrise and Mailbox.

Mailbox is an app that allows you to clean up your inbox (only offered with gmail). Now this sounds simple enough but it is kind of amazing how many emails can accumulate.

So here’s the deal, the goal of Mailbox is to get to “inbox zero daily,” which basically means that all your messages have a place. Whether they’ve been archived (different than deleted), or sorted into easy-to-understand categorizes to reference later, the ultimate success is being able to see the daily photo they post for people who’ve successfully cleared their inbox.

Personally, I never really understood the purpose of “all mail” vs. “inbox” in Gmail. Now, it makes far more sense: the inbox is just for the stuff you are getting right now or may need right now. Everything else doesn’t need to sit there taking up screen/mental space, just put it into the archives for safe keeping…. DUH! (can you say: major lightbulb moment?!)

The only downside to Mailbox: it’s in Beta so…. just like the early days of gmail, you’ve gotta wait your turn. When you download the app and register for the service you get to see a lovely countdown of where you’re at in the lineup and how many poor unlucky souls are behind you.

(this was where I was at February 11th — I got it on March 1st)

So that’s Mailbox. All kinds of fun swiping and cleanliness for your email. Now, onto an app I just downloaded today…. Sunrise.

Sunrise is a calendar app, once again designed to work with Google calendars, Facebook calendars, and LinkedIn. So far what I like about it is the fact that you get benefit of multiple views of your calendar at one glance or with simple swiping motions. Plus, I really love the coloration.

I was successfully able to set up a true Gmail account calendar and a Google Apps-based calendar (in case you were concerned about not using the standard google interface).

(this is what it Sunrise looks like)

I’m definitely going to try and get used to Sunrise (there are fun icons that appear, but I’m not sure what they all mean), but so far I’m digging the interface.

Let me know what kind of fun finds you’ve stumbled across lately in the comments section!